The Shop On Blossom Street

A Seattle knitting store brings together four very different women in this earnest tale about friendship and love. Lydia Hoffman, a two-time cancer survivor, opens the shop A Good Yarn as a symbol of the new life she plans to lead. She starts a weekly knitting class, hoping to improve business and make friends in the area. The initial class project is a baby blanket, and Macomber (Changing Habits), a knitter herself who offers tips about the craft and pithy observations from knitting professionals throughout the novel, includes the knitting pattern at the start of the book. Well-heeled Jacqueline Donovan, who chooses to ignore her empty marriage, disguises her disdain for her pregnant daughter-in-law by knitting a baby blanket. Carol Girard joins the group as an affirmation of her hopes to finally have a successful in vitro pregnancy. Alix Townsend, a high school dropout with an absentee father and a mother incarcerated for forging checks, uses the class to satisfy a court-ordered community service sentence for a drug-possession conviction for which her roommate is really responsible.

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Sometimes life is bad and this book has been helping me through it - maybe that is the best thing a book can do. I don't know if it matters about the characters, plots, dialogue and writing when emotional solace is found. Not that this was a badly written book - the contrary. So I will be stocking up and reading the rest of the series.

If you feel the need to read the Blossom Street books, definitely start with this book. It sets up the neighborhood nicely and gives readers a sense of the community. The four women of this book are so diverse in their personalities, but also alike. I love how Macomber developed them. You will definitely be able to identify with one of the ladies no matter your age.

nursecheryl
Mar 02, 2013

I loved this book and all her others about Blossom Street and its residents. This one is definitely my favorite that she has written. When I see her name I always want to take out the book.

khuntley
Aug 01, 2012

This book was better than I thought that it would be. I'll check out some other books by Macomber in the future. Also, I borrowed the knitting book that goes along with this story. It has 11 baby afghan patterns. A lot of cute ones in there, but I think most patterns are for intermediate knitters.